KEIGHLEY was regained by the Conservatives in a momentous General Election night nationally for the party.

Robbie Moore wrested the parliamentary seat – which includes Ilkley – from Labour, with a majority of over 2,000. He polled 25,298 votes.

Labour’s John Grogan – who had won the seat from the Tories in June, 2017, with a slim majority – polled 23,080 votes.

They were way ahead of the next nearest challenger – Liberal Democrat candidate Tom Franks, who picked up 2,573.

The Brexit Party candidate Waqas Ali Khan got 850 votes, The Yorkshire Party’s Mark Barton 667 and Matthew Edward Rose, for the Social Democratic Party, 132 votes.

The turnout in Keighley was just under 73 per cent.

Signals were not good for Labour as soon as the clock struck 10pm last Thursday and an exit poll predicted a large Conservative majority nationally.

After the Keighley result had been declared, following the count at the town’s leisure centre, Mr Moore looked ahead to future priorities.

Among them will be working with fellow Conservative MP Philip Davies, in neighbouring Shipley, to break away from Bradford Council.

He said: “We’ve got to get through the Brexit deadlock, but locally, what I really want to do is we’ve got install the pride back into Keighley itself.

“We’ve got to focus on reviving the high streets of Keighley Central, so looking at North Street, Cavendish Street and the Airedale Shopping Centre.

“As a Government we’ve already allocated £25 million to Keighley and Shipley – we’ve got make sure that money is spent wisely and we really need to get the parking issues sorted out in Ilkley.

“Actually, this is all feeding into a much bigger issue and I will be campaigning with Philip Davies to seriously look at pulling both of the constituencies away from Bradford Council.”

He said it was with “enthusiasm, energy and commitment” that he is ready to go.

Outgoing MP Mr Grogan said that given what had happened elsewhere that night, his team could take pride in the result.

“We pushed them close,” he said.

“Given the circumstances of the night, I think this must be one of the best results in Yorkshire – which I believe the team can take pride in.

“We were just a couple of thousand away. In the end, considering the national swing, there was nothing we could do really.”

He added: “It has been a great privilege to serve the people of Ilkley, Ben Rhydding and Addingham for the last two and a half years. The campaigns to stop sewage being discharged into the River Wharfe and to protect the greenbelt were particular highlights of my time as the local MP. I am also pleased that because of cross party working over a number of years, which I helped to encourage, the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and Labour now hold the majority on the town council. My team were proud of the result because the swing from the Conservatives to Labour at 2.3 per cent was one of the smallest in the North of England. In the Ilkley Ward it was virtually a 50/50 split between Labour and the Conservatives in terms of votes.”

Nationally, the Conservatives gained 47 seats ­– including several in traditional Labour heartlands – taking their total number of MPs to 365.

Labour lost 59 seats, and now has 203 MPs.

Mr Grogan said there were lessons for the national party to learn.

“Being in the mainstream is absolutely essential – it can’t be more of the same in five years’ time,” he said.

“Socialism is the language of priorities as Aneurin Bevan said many years ago, and I think we perhaps lost sight of that during the election campaign.

“It will be a moment of reflection for the Labour Party ahead.”

Mr Moore said he had found during canvassing there was a strong feeling amongst people that they wanted the result of the Brexit referendum respected.

“There was also a strong feeling that Corbyn wasn’t getting or respecting that wish,” added Mr Moore.

“People’s feeling, including that of lifelong Labour supporters, was that Corbyn wasn’t engaging with them.”

Jeremy Corbyn announced after the election that he would be standing down as leader.